Church Briefs (April 18, 2014)St. John’s Lutheran Holy Week St. John’s Lutheran Church will celebrate Holy Week with special worship services and activities. A Service of Darkness will be held at 7 p.m. today. On Easter Sunday, a sunrise service will be held at 6:30 a.m. An Easter breakfast will be served by the youth group from 7:45-10:15 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Children from 3 years old through fifth grade are invited to take part in an Easter Egg Hunt at 9 a.m. Mor...

Hagar and the Angel of the LordGenesis 16 records the very first appearance of the Angel of the Lord to a human being. “Angel of the Lord” occurs 56 times in the Old Testament and 12 times in the New Testament. The story of Hagar, a young, pregnant Egyptian servant girl provides the setting. The father of the baby was Abram, the servant’s owner/master. This made Sarai, the man’s wife, angry even though it had been Sarai’s idea in the first place. Sarai treated Hagar harshly...

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Pastor Steve EllisonThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Church Briefs (April 11, 2014)Crusader’s Ministries will lead worship The Crusader’s Ministries of Magnolia will lead the worship at Encouraging Word in Russellville at 7 p.m. today. They will also lead the worship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday during Homecoming Service at Trinity House of Prayer, located at 2600 State Highway 10 East in Danville. The church will host a revival at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Evangelism Ministry Team will lead in these services also. The C...

Opportunity within the crisisIn 1852, William Booth saw a crisis. He saw a church that was more worried about itself than it was the poor, the sick or the destitute. But at the same time, he saw an opportunity. He saw an opportunity to reach people for Christ and offer them the salvation that comes from Christ. Him and his wife traveled the countryside of England ministering to people where they were. In 1865, they set up in London to preach the Gospel to those the church...

Since He is risen, stand firm!“He is risen!” along with its rejoinder, “He is risen indeed!””Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By the gospel you are saved. if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain,” (1 Cor. 15:1-2.) Serving as an exhortation to stand firm. “How can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?” the apostl...

Commissioned!The Bible speaks a lot about fruit bearing. Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply. Noah was told be fruitful and multiply. Jacob was told to be fruitful and multiply. God told the prophet Jeremiah that He would send the Righteous Branch so that God’s people would be fruitful and multiply. The gospels mention fruit 38 times, three by John the Baptist and the rest by Jesus. The New Testament speaks of thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hund...

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Pastor Steve EllisonThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Church Briefs (April 4, 2014)Foursquare Gospel Church revival A revival at the Foursquare Gospel Church will continue through Sunday. Rev. Norman Culverson from Fair Play, Mo. is the guest speaker. The services will begin at 7 p.m. each night except for Sunday, which will begin at 5. Apostolic Lighthouse inside yard sale An inside yard sale will take place at the Apostolic Lighthouse in Dardanelle from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today and 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Corn...

Former Little Rock diocese bishop McDonald dies LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Andrew McDonald, the Roman Catholic bishop of Little Rock who led the statewide diocese for nearly three decades, has died. He was 90. Dennis Lee, the diocese's chancellor for administrative affairs, said McDonald died in Palatine, Ill., where he moved after stepping down in 2000. He became a chaplain to the Little Sisters of the Poor there in 2002 and retired last year. "Please pray for the happy repose of his soul," said t...

Judge awards another $525M to Tony Alamo victims LITTLE ROCK (AP) — An Arkansas judge has awarded seven women physically and sexually abused by evangelist Tony Alamo another $525 million, pushing the total owed by the imprisoned preacher and an affiliated church to more than $1 billion. Miller County Circuit Judge Kirk Johnson entered a default judgment Thursday ordering Alamo to match the $525 million already owed by Twenty First Century Holiness Tabernacle Church for actual and punitive da...

Dr. Ott returns from Havana missionDr. Don Ott returned March 15 from his 12th mission to Havana where he directs the Cuba Bible Institute. He and Lynn Cook of Little Rock Church co-taught a four-day seminar on “Marriage and Family Life.” Thirty-four different preachers and church leaders attended and 22 completed the class for credit. This seminar started the second four-year cycle of a curriculum that leads to a Certificate of Christian Ministry. Leaders of 22 house churches ...

‘It takes a community’ to help a vetI was recently struck by something during the Sochi Olympics. For two weeks, we were saturated with information about the Olympic athletes competing in Sochi. Every time I clicked on Yahoo, the top four stories were about Olympic events or athletes. The NBC evening news was broadcast from Sochi every night. Even many of the local news channels had reporters on-location at the Olympics. Our nation and media were focused on the U.S. athletes. We...

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Chaplain Steve SullivanThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Church Briefs (March 14, 2014)Deep South Quartet Convention The Crusader’s Ministries of Magnolia and Gateway Pentecostal Church of Russellville will come together again to host the Deep South Quartet Convention at 6 p.m. today and Saturday. The Crusader’s Ministries, Ed Held, New Living Quartet, Patrick Quick and The Travelers and Terry Lemay will take the stage to minister through song, testimony and preaching as the Lord leads. For more information, call David at (870) ...

The gift of potentialOur nation recently celebrated the legacy of a man who recognized that a person’s character is more important than the color of his skin and that all men and women have within themselves potential that could change destinies, regardless of ethnicity, social standing, or heredity. What if Dr. King had first never realized his potential, or worse realized it, but because of fear never developed it? Fear of public opinion causes many people to bu...

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Pastor William FlynnThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Restored!The Bible is full of colorful characters. I can think of many Biblical characters who I think would make wonderful guests for an evening of conversation — Methusaleh, Jeremiah, Rahab, Enoch, Hosea, Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, the man with the legion of demons, Nicodemus, etc. would all generate tremendous questions from me. Simon Peter was certainly a colorful and interesting character. Who can understand a man who would simply drop hi...

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Pastor Steve EllisonThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Judge orders sale of convicted evangelist's church TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge has again ordered the sale of convicted evangelist Tony Alamo's church and gym in Fort Smith in order to partially satisfy a $30 million civil judgment owed by Alamo. The order by U.S. Magistrate Barry Bryant rejects five liens filed in December against the church by Alamo followers, The Texarkana Gazette reported Saturday. Bryant's order, signed Thursday, ruled the liens invalid, noting that none had enf...

The persecuted church is youI was recently struck by the observation of a Middle Eastern Christian, “The persecuted church is you!” Why? “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts,” (1 Cor. 12:12). So if one suffers, all suffer. Thus while we pray for the persecuted church, it is not as outsiders. While it goes without saying that the persecution is more intense in some regions than others. Accordingly, the Christian faith is by far the most persecuted group...

Bringing lifeJairus, a synagogue official, came to Jesus in Mark 5:22 with an insurmountable problem. His 12-year-old daughter was dying. Jesus was always compassionate. He went to the home of Jairus to help. However, Jesus was also always aware of teachable moments to train his disciples. In this case, Jesus took the opportunity to separate His inner circle from the rest of His disciples so that He could teach them a very important lesson. Jairus’ daughte...

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Pastor Steve EllisonThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Church Briefs (March 7, 2014)First Assembly of God celebrates 100 years First Assembly of God begins its 100th year celebration on Saturday with the Isaacs in concert at 6 p.m. The Isaacs are a multi-award winning family group who began singing 35 years ago and are based out of Hendersonville, Tenn. On Sunday, Dr. George Wood, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, will be the keynote speaker in the 10 a.m. service. The evening will conclude with a 6 p.m. commun...

Church celebrates 100 yearsThe First Assembly of God in Russellville is kicking off festivities Saturday to celebrate its upcoming 100th anniversary. Contemporary gospel bluegrass band The Isaacs will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday in the sanctuary. The event is free and open to the public. A love offering will be taken. George Wood, First Assembly of God international general superintendent, will speak during the 10 a.m. service Sunday. "It's an awesome thing, a high honor...